Spring 2013 - History - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Faculty ProfilesEugene M. Avrutin presented his work at Tel AvivUniversity, the Center for Jewish History, the Universityof Michigan, and the European Social ScienceHistory Conference in Glasgow. Three of his collaborativeprojects appeared in print: a translation andcritical edition of Anna Pavlovna Vygodskaia’s TheStory of a Life: Memoirs of a Young Jewish Woman inthe Russian Empire (with Robert H. Greene) as wellas two collections of articles, Jews in the East EuropeanBorderlands: Essays in Honor of John D. Klier(with Harriet Murav) and Russia in Motion: Culturesof Mobility since 1850 (with John Randolph). He is amember of an interdisciplinary research group thatreceived an INTERSECT Grant from the GraduateCollege for a two-year project on “Cultures of Law ina Global Context.” During academic year 2012–2013,Avrutin continues work on his new book project onritual murder and small-town life in Velizh, supportedby the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, theCenter for Advanced Study, and a Charles Ryskampfellowship from the American Council of LearnedSocieties.In 2012 Jim Barrett gave the first annual Friends ofHistory lecture, spent part of the summer as a fellowof the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,and, as Visiting Professor at Osaka University, deliveredpublic lectures and seminars in Kyoto, Osaka,Tokyo, and Sapporo. The paperback edition of TheIrish Way: Becoming American in the Multi-EthnicCity appeared with Penguin Books in February while“Remembering David Montgomery (1926–2011), HisScholarship, and His Mentorship” appeared in theCanadian journal Labour/Le Travail. Other publicationsinclude “Irish Americanization on Stage: HowIrish Musicians, Playwrights, and Writers Created aNew Urban American Culture, 1880–1940” in theJapanese journal History for the Public and “TheHeritage of Social Class and Class Conflict on Chicago’sSouth Side” in On Location: Historic Cities andSites, edited by D. Fairchild Ruggles, (Spring, 2011).Reprinted articles appeared in Major Problems inModern American History (Cengage, 2011) and MajorProblems in American Immigration History (Cengage,2011). Spanish translations of earlier works on UptonSinclair’s novel The Jungle appeared in Catedráticode Sociología.Last year Antoinette Burton devoted much of hertime to organizing the first phase of our three-yearprogramming initiative “World Histories from Below.”With the help of graduate assistant Zach Sell she rana faculty/student reading group, several syllabuswritingsessions, and a teacher-training workshoparound our theme. The latter, which drew half adozen school-teachers from around the region, is agood example of how our recent thematic initiativeshave extended beyond the confines of the departmentand the university. History also participated in theIPRH spring conference “Empire from Below,” whichfeatured, among others, guest speaker Marcus Redikerand our former colleague (now in New Zealand) TonyBallantyne. “World Histories from Below” effortswere funded by the Provost’s Initiative on TeachingAdvancement and the Office of Public Engagement;they are part of on-going plans for developinga Center for Historical Interpretation with alumnisupport. In addition to traveling for research and conferences,she published A Primer for Teaching WorldHistory (Duke, 2012) and Brown over Black: Raceand the Politics of Postcolonial Citation (Delhi: ThreeEssays Collective, 2012).In 2012 James Brennan published his book Taifa:Making Nation and Race in Urban Tanzania (OhioUniversity Press) and became editor of the Journalof Eastern African Studies. He also won a Charles A.Ryskamp Research Fellowship from the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societies for 2012–2015, andhe was designated a Helen Corley Petit Scholar for2013–2014 by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciencesat the University of Illinois.Tamara Chaplin presented research from her newbook project, Sappho Comes Out: Lesbians and theMedia in Postwar France, at a conference on Feminismand the Audiovisual Archive at the FondationHartung Bergman in Antibes, France. She gavetalks in Paris (at the 9 th International Crossroadsin Cultural Studies Conference), in Chicago (at theAmerican Historical Association Conference), andin Portland, OR (at the Western Society for FrenchHistory). Last fall Chaplin spoke about lesbian life inToulouse as part of a visit that she organized featuringthe French lesbian-feminist filmmaker, JacquelineJulien. She was elected to a three-year term on thegoverning board of the AHA’s Committee on LGBTHistory; a letter she co-wrote with CLGBTH co-chairDon Romesburg defending California Senate Bill 48(known as the FAIR Act) was published in the November2012 issue of Perspectives. She has developed anew undergraduate course on Sexuality in ModernEurope. With support from the UIUC ResearchBoard, she is compiling a database of archival26 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign